Shoppers seem to be just as enthusiastic about shopping on their computers and smartphones on Cyber Monday as they were about finding deals over the Black Friday weekend.

Online sales on Cyber Monday, which was started in 2005 by a retail trade group to encourage Americans to shop online the Monday after Thanksgiving, were up early afternoon by 20 percent from a year ago, according to data from IBM Benchmark. At department stores, online sales were up 39 percent, while they were up 24 percent at apparel stores. Meanwhile, sales from mobile devices were up 8.5 percent. The group did not give dollar amounts.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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